Dan Le Batard wishes he had a “do over” on the contentious interview Michele Tafoya had on his show.
Le Batard, who left ESPN to found Meadowlark Media with former ESPN president John Skipper, appeared on the “House of Strauss” podcast. Host Ethan Strauss asked Le Batard if the interview with Tafoya was a success based on the buzz it generated — it so far has garnered 79,000 viewers on YouTube, a large number for their network, and was discussed by numerous outlets online, including The Post — or a failure because, as Strauss phrased it, there was not a “meeting of the minds.”
“I don’t gain anything from how that played out,” Le Batard said. “I don’t want clicks gratuitously. I’m not in the cheapened click business. I really went into that conversation with Michele Tafoya hoping that the conversation would be, ‘Hey, this is somebody I had a friendly, cordial relationship with. Let’s see if we make some art here reconnecting after 15 years.’
“Not combative art. Just catching up because this bridge can be traversed by people who know each other a little bit, and then it went off the rails from the start. It really was unexpected to me. She thought she was ambushed. I’m not an ambusher. I didn’t intend to ambush her. It just went off the rails immediately because my introduction was awkward. And, she felt like she had been lied to.”
Tafoya left NBC Sports earlier this year, where she had long been the sideline reporter on the marquee “Sunday Night Football” package, and has entered the realm of conservative politics. In addition to being a pundit, she is co-chairing the gubernatorial campaign for Republican candidate Kendall Qualls in Minnesota.
As Le Batard referenced, Tafoya later said that she felt “ambushed” in the spot. Le Batard was adamant this was not his intention, and he wishes he could have a mulligan.
“But I really went into that interview hoping to talk to her about her career,” he said. “I went into that interview hoping to have the conversation we’re having right now [civil disagreement about political matters]. But I just never got it off the ground. And so if I had some do-overs there, I would like to do it over.
“And I’m not sure I would have even run it given what the fallout was, just because, we went in circles. I didn’t think it was a good look for anybody.”